Right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson appeared to remain seated as President Donald Trump said that “the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families” during his inauguration speech on Monday, a comment that drew a wide and bipartisan standing ovation from a majority of attendees at the Capitol Rotunda ceremony. 

Carlson, who received one of the most sought-after seats in Washington to attend the inauguration in the rotunda — which has a limited capacity of about 600 people — drew unusually fierce criticism from several Republican lawmakers over his decision last September to host Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust distortionist who called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II, on his show. 

Three months later, Carlson held another controversial interview with Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor who, in a lengthy discussion with Carlson, espoused a litany of conspiracy theories about Israel and the broader Middle East. 

Carlson and the newly inaugurated Vice President J.D. Vance have a close professional relationship. The former Fox News host lobbied Trump aggressively to choose Vance as his running mate, and the former senator has appeared on his online streaming program.